Acceptability, acceptance, and adoption of renewable and sustainable energy technologies

Although attention to technologies for renewable and sustainable energies has grown exponentially in recent decades, there are still few theoretical-conceptual reflections on the concepts of acceptability, acceptance, and adoption. Because there is no common understanding and constructs’ definitions are sometimes overlapping or contradictory, this chapter summarizes the concepts’ definitions, and tries to disentangle them. This chapter identifies the main variables, and models employed in the literature in order to advance the scientific debate on this topic. Conclusions highlight that acceptability is the favourable attitude towards the renewable and sustainable energy technology; acceptance, is a tripartite intention concept comprising both socio-political support, and community use, and market buying; adoption is the behavioural outcome towards the target technology for a certain renewable and sustainable energy.